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The story of these actions came out in federal court in Trenton yesterday at the trial of activists charged with terrorizing scientists who use animals in experiments.
Worldwide attention is now focused on the trial where local attorneys are trying to prove a radical animal rights organization was providing education on the allegedly cruel testing methods of Huntingdon Life Sciences -- not igniting violent retaliation against the company.
The trial is a battle over free speech, with the government saying SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty) ignited dangerous activities by glorifying the activities on its Web site.
During its five-year campaign against British-based HLS, activists alleged the company is responsible for the deaths of 500 animals a day.
Seven members of the Philadelphia-based group are standing trial on charges of animal enterprise terrorism, conspiracy and interstate stalking after their arrests in May 2004.
The organization was set on ending what they believed was HLS’ "reign of terror" with tactics like posting stories of guerrilla protest techniques initiated all over the world by activists who follow the cause.
Members organized boycotts and sit-ins, but federal prosecutors say SHAC promoted illegal activities on employees’ homes and offices.
"With no customers, there’s no killing," was one of many quotes federal prosecutors lifted off the organization’s Web site during the first day of testimony.
Another article on the Web site commended PETA for their passion in the cause against animal testing, but said, "What we do best is bring the ruckus."
Stories of strange protest techniques posted on the SHAC Web site filled nearly all of yesterday’s testimony.
They told tales of marble fights in office lobbies, the smearing of red paint on the doorsteps of many of HLS’ partners and employees, and stink-bomb launches.
Fax and calculated cyber attacks where activists flooded the offices of HLS and its associates with calls and e-mails were also used.
Protesters at one time handed out flyers with the contact information of HLS employees printed on them, but the text said the numbers offered discount concert tickets.
"Imagine getting calls all day with people calling for U2 tickets," a SHAC Web site entry said.
"Anything they can pin on the defendants is an act of free speech," Andrea Lindsay, a SHAC official, told the Associated Press. "The government contends it rises to the level of domestic terrorism. We say it’s free speech."
In fact, the group says it never told anyone to break the law.
On each account posted on the group’s Web site, a disclaimer from SHAC says it isn’t responsible for and doesn’t condone violent activities, yesterday’s testimony revealed.
The attacks affected banks and companies in Russia, England and Japan, but the group’s alleged brand of riot act also occurred in Mercer County and New Jersey.
HLS has research labs in Franklin Township near Princeton, officials said.
According to several online journals read in front of the jury, protesters sprayed red paint on the Princeton-Kingston home of HLS’ vice president of analytic sciences.
The executive’s wife suffered "close to a nervous breakdown" after the attack, the SHAC Web site said.
And that alleged vandalism followed an incident in Somerville where protesters flipped the car of an account executive and splashed paint on the entrance of another worker’s New Brunswick home.
Undercover videos on the group’s Web site show animals being slapped, force-fed, screamed at and otherwise manhandled, allegedly by workers at a research laboratory that uses animals to test the safety of drugs and chemicals.
But the jury also saw pictures from SHAC’s Web site showing off the spray painted "bloody" remains of its alleged global attacks on associates or business partners of HLS.
In a news release the day the defendants were arrested, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said the group used "violence and intimidation" to further their cause.
"This is not activism," Christie said at the time. "This is a group of lawless thugs attacking innocent men, women and children."
